Reality Factory

If you were making a game (on your own) using the old school top-down view,the detail and work needed for each monster/character would be much less than a game that can switch to 3rd person view-
even a far 3rd person view camera,sometimes zooms in when your hero stands behind a wall.
So the detail level for the models-and specially the textures should be at least medium.


Either way,the total monsters in the game will be few,
comparing to the 60-70 different monsters you will find in big budget games like neverwinter nights-or heroes of might and magic.

Would you choose to make the game only for top-down view and progress faster,with less hard work and more monsters,
-or make fewer but more detailed monsters with the option to switch to 3rd Person view?

Good Qquestion. When i make the monsters, i first think of how many of them are in the game (of one type, because you then see them more often), how many of them will be on screen at a given time and also how long the mosnters will be alive. If you have 12 Zombies at a time on the screen they don't have to be the highest quality, but if i make, say two ice-golems that together are a bossfight (and of course they are really strong), i would make more detail and put more work into them, maybe a nice EnvironmentMap, good animations, and so on. The bosses are the ones you will remember, the rest is just 'the rest'.

The more monsters of a given type in the game, the more detail.
The more monsters of a given type on a screen, the less detail.
The most important monsters take a special role. The dragon at the end of the game is surely more important than the average zombie that is killed with three sword hits. So the dragon shold be more detailed.

But you should keep around a certain detail level for the average monsters. It just looks weird if there is a huge difference between the detail of ocrs (undetailed) and goblins (detailed)...
Bosses should always have something special on them, like a cool armor that no one else has, or an amulet, or a robe of feathers. Here you should be really creative, because, like i said before, if you forget everything, you won't forget the bosses. (For me, a good game absoulutely NEEDS good boss fights. )

I personally would go for a 3rd person view, because you are 'nearer' to the hero - which is better...